A stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life, Sugarcane, the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning.

In 2021, evidence of unmarked graves was discovered on the grounds of an Indian residential school run by the Catholic Church in Canada. After years of silence, the forced separation, assimilation and abuse many children experienced at these segregated boarding schools was brought to light, sparking a national outcry against a system designed to destroy Indigenous communities. Set amidst a groundbreaking investigation, Sugarcane illuminates the heartbreak and beauty of a community breaking cycles of intergenerational trauma and finding the strength to survive.

The Garden Cinema View:

Although Sugarcane explores a real and very much ongoing tragedy, which emerges from deeper historical atrocities, it is made with a warmth and generosity of spirit which brings levity amongst the air of sadness. The subjects and victims filmed here are admirably patient and kind, and scenes of community celebration, small acts of connection, or even just the beautiful British Columbia landscape, feel uplifting. That is not to say that the sense of anger and injustice is not pervasive. When the credits roll you’ll likely also feel that the conciliatory words of popes and politicians are not sufficient compensation for this pain.

Sugarcane might be considered as part of a small recent movement of cinematic excavation that would include Annina van Neel’s documentary of her efforts to memorialise unmarked slave burial grounds in Saint Helena in A Story of Bones, as well as RaMell Ross’ dramatisation of reform school abuse cover-ups in the upcoming Nickel Boys. What tethers these works together is sense of filmmaking and viewing being part of a collective response and processing effort. An element which makes each watch a valuable act in itself.